Saturday, July 12, 2014

You Oughta Know About...Bunting with Brads!

Hey y'all! This month I'm linking up with Mrs. McClain over at Buzzing with Mrs. McClain for the monthly You Oughta Know blog hop! We'll be sharing tips, advice, websites, and products that teachers just oughta know about! Make sure that you check out the other blogs at the end of this post to discover more things that You Oughta Know!
Now I think you oughta know about......my super secret bunting trick!

I love bunting banners as much as the next teacher. Actually I probably love bunting a little bit more than your average teacher. I use it for everything! See evidence below......

Mrs. Cain bunting over my desk

Plastic bunting on my main wall

Focus Wall bunting on my bulletin board

And I couldn't even find pictures of my 'Book Recommendations' bunting! Do you believe I have an obsession now?! 

Now my FAVORITE bunting is bunting that I make myself. Can you guess why?? BECAUSE I CAN PERSONALIZE IT (hence the name bunting, welcome bunting, and bulletin board title bunting). Now I could make bunting all day long, y'all. I created a template on my computer so I can either add a background on my computer, add letters, print it out, cut, and laminate OR I can just add the letters, print it on colored or patterned paper, cut, and laminate. The possibilities are endless!!

BUT......

There is one thing that I was super annoyed with when I started making my own bunting.......

RIBBON!!!

Now I love the idea of ribbon. But I just can't stand to use it! It is so annoying! You have to make sure that your ribbon pieces are all the same length or your bunting will look wonky. After you make sure that the ribbon is cut to the same length, you have to make sure they are tied exactly the same or else your banner will look wonky. Don't even get me started on the fraying madness! All that to say, ribbon and I do not get along.

Fear not friends! I have come up with a solution! No longer do you have to deal with fussy ribbon when making adorable, personalized bunting for your classroom! Instead of using ribbon to connect my bunting triangles together, I use...

WAIT FOR IT......


BRADS!


Insert the hallelujah chorus here y'all.

Brads to the rescue! Now some of you may be thinking...but brads are gold and ugly and don't match my beautiful bunting at all! I've got you covered there, too! Your local craft store carries tons of different varieties in the scrapbooking/paper crafts section! 

Okay, now let me show you how to do this:

Supplies: your bunting triangles, a hole puncher, and some pretty coordinating brads


NOTE: You have to make sure that your hole puncher punches a smaller hole than the heads of your brads. Otherwise, your brads will slide right out and won't hold your banner together.

ALSO NOTE: If you don't laminate your bunting, you could probably just stick the brads right through the paper. I laminate mine for durability so the hole puncher is necessary!

Here we go!

First. Lay out your bunting triangles in the order that they go in (I'm using my Chevron Welcome Banner that you can find as a freebie HERE!)


Second. Punch a hole in the top corners of each triangle. NOW BE CAREFUL! Don't punch the holes too close to the edge of the triangle or the brads can tear the paper and fall out. Also remember: unless, you're going for a completely uniform look, don't punch holes in the top left corner of the first triangle or the top right corner of the last triangle. They won't have another triangle to attach to!


Now go through and place the second triangle over the first triangle. Insert the brads and fold them down on the back of each set. Keep doing this until you have a beautiful bunting banner!


Now once you hang your banner, you may notice that the prongs on your brads are hanging out like this......


Once your banner is hung you have two options to solve this issue:

1. Just turn the brad heads on the front until the prongs disappear and pat yourself on the back.

2. Do the same thing and then tape the brad prongs down on the back if you think they'll move around a lot.

Option 1 always works best for me and I've never had a problem with the prongs showing once I turn them all the right way :)

Well there you have it friends! Beautiful bunting for your classroom without all the hassle of annoying ribbon!

I hope you enjoyed this tip!

Make sure to check out the other blogs below for more great things You Oughta Know!



23 comments:

  1. HI Stephanie! Thank you for the great tip and for the cute freebie! I will now embark on making bunting for my classroom. Thank you for sharing your solution so that others can avoid the ribbon fiasco!

    Carrie
    i Heart Second

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  2. BTW one of my dearest friends went to OU!! I thought of her when I saw the flag in your pic.

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    1. BOOMER SOONER! Love hearing about fellow Sooners :) I'm so glad I'm not the only one who can't stand ribbon! HA!

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  3. Very Helpful. I pinned your post to my classroom decor board so others can learn too. Thanks for the Freebie.

    http://www.anchoredinlearning.blogspot.com/

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    1. Thank you for your pin!! I haven't made it to your blog yet but I'm working my way there! Can't wait!

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    1. Thank you so much Lynda! I just loved your interactive notebook pop-outs!!

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  5. I'm sort of chuckling to myself, because it's usually the simplest things that are just the most wonderful! Thanks for sharing! I have a stack (or maybe several) of bunting that I've been procrastinating about because I haven't wanted to deal with the ribbon!

    Theresa @ True Life I'm a Teacher!

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    1. I just love bunting so much but I, too, had a stack of bunting that I didn't want to assemble because ribbon is such a pain!! I'm glad I inspired you to assemble your bunting ;)

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  6. Super cute! I've pinned your picture of the brads and bunting idea! Do you sell the bunting template anywhere? I've just followed/liked you everywhere I can find you!

    On a side note, I'm a new army wife so I fee you on the "I'm sure my grade and state will change often" ... I've taught in 2 states now, and we're moving again in the next year!

    http://cometothecarpet.blogspot.com/

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    1. Andrea, the template was super easy to make and there is nothing to it!! It's just a PPT file with two triangles on it! Ha! Sometimes I fill it in with a digital paper background and sometimes I just print my bunting onto scrapbook paper!

      I'm so glad to have a fellow mil spouse blogging buddy!! I followed your blog yesterday after I saw that you live in Alaska! My mom was stationed there not too long ago and we LOVED it!

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  7. Cute idea...totally gonna steal it!

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    1. Teachers are the best at stealing....I mean borrowing ideas! Steal away :)

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  8. I love the idea of the brads! Brilliant thinking! I tried one once and gave up after trying to make it look good. Which was next to impossible! I might have to try it again now! Thanks!

    ~Emily
    Emmy Mac's Class

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    1. I knew that I'm too much of a perfectionist to use ribbons so I just had to find an alternative! You almost can't go wrong with brads!

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  9. You make it look so easy to make it look so good! Thanks for a great tip -- I love it!

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    1. Thanks, Mary!! I promise it is just as easy as it looks!!

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  10. How cute! This is a very clever idea. Leave it to a teacher to figure out the simple, easy way to do something. Thanks for sharing.
    Debbie
    Crockett's Classroom . . . Forever in Third Grade

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    1. So glad you like it, Debbie! Just trying to keep things as simple as possible around here :)

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  11. I love this idea! I want to incorporate bunting in my classroom design for the upcoming year and using the brads will make things so much easier. Thank you for sharing!

    Jasmine
    Buzzing With Mrs. McClain

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    1. I'm so glad you like my tip, Jasmine! Thank you for hosting such a fun blog hop!!

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